


The Haunting of Casterly Rock

by Julieoftarth (Wherethereissmoak)



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love Again, Memory Loss, Post-Canon, ghost jaime, it's a happy ending though I promise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-16 18:38:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19323829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wherethereissmoak/pseuds/Julieoftarth
Summary: Brienne needs a vacation from the kingsguard, so she is "voluntold" to take one King Bran and Tyrion by investigating supernatural rumors coming from Casterly Rock. She arrives to find none other than the ghost of Jaime Lannister scaring away locals. Unfortunately, this ghost remembers nothing past his time as a kingsguard for King Robert. Brienne must deal with a ghost who is an arrogant fool, unresolved feelings, and trying to figure out how to help him move on. If that's what either of them really wants in the end.





	The Haunting of Casterly Rock

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I was just typing up some fun ideas for the "five years after the war" prompt on JBO today and it turned into this 3k+ word one-shot. This is so silly and cheesy, and totally a crack fic so don't try to figure out the science behind how any of this works. :) 
> 
> It has a happy ending, I promise! 
> 
> No beta on this one, so I apologize if there are any terrible errors.

“You need a vacation,” Tyrion said without any other greetings as he entered the white tower. “It’s been five years without rest. The king agrees.”

Five years since the war. Five years since she became commander of the Kingsguard. Five years since Jaime…

“Lord Tyrion, I don’t need a break. I need to keep working.”

The last surviving Lannister gave her a sad look. “I know we’ve all tried to bury our sadness in work, but it’s time we move on. The rest of the world has.”

They argued back and forth, until Tyrion said it was an order from the king and Brienne finally agreed to go spend some time on Tarth. She left a proud Podrick in charge while she would be away.

“At least three months off, Brienne, and not a day sooner,” Tyrion scolded before she stormed off onto her ship.

After a week or so on Tarth, she gets bored. Sure, visiting her father is nice, but all alone with her thoughts, Brienne starts to think about the past. And that is something she has worked to avoid all these years.

 Thankfully, Tyrion sends her a raven asking her to visit Casterly Rock in response to rumors of supernatural occurrences happening there. “People are running from the keep, screaming for some reason,” Tyrion wrote. “I offered to go myself, but the king insisted it should be you. And you know how he gets those strange looks sometimes.”

Grateful to have a mission, Brienne sets off the next day.

“It’s a ghost,” the guardsman at the gate told her. “It’s Jaime Lannister, himself. But he still has two hands.”

“I heard he can rip the hand off when he wants, just to scare you if you get to close,” another guard chimed in.

Brienne just rolled her eyes. Ghosts weren’t real, and they were being ridiculous.

She was wrong, because the ghost of Jaime Lannister tried to scare her away by yelling and weaving in and out of walls.

“You’re not running,” the ghost finally said, stopping in front of her.

“I’ve never run from anything, you know that, Jaime,” she said, willing her voice not to shake at the sight of him. He didn’t look like her Jaime. He looked like the golden lion she had always heard of, with long blonde hair, an arrogant expression, and two hands.

“Are you a woman? Why are you wearing armor? Gods, you are ugly.”

Brienne gasped at the disdainful expression on his face, it reminded her of when they first met. “Do you not remember me at all?”

“Should I? I don’t think we’ve met.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

Ghost-Jaime shrugged. “My father persuaded King Robert to give me some time off my kingsguard duties to come home for a visit. After that…not much. Why?”

Brienne wanted to scream. Not only did she have to deal with the situation of the haunting of Casterly Rock, but she had to converse with the version of Jaime that was simply insufferable.

“I need to write a letter,” she said, storming off to the rookery, with ghostly Jaime floating along behind.

“Alright, but after that, will you leave my castle? I’ve been haunting it for years and I don’t like it when alive people hang about for far too long.”

“Why not?”

“It reminds me that I’m dead and makes me sad.” 

“Can’t you…move on?”

He shrugged again. “Don’t know how.”

She sends a raven to Tyrion to let him know that they need to send a septon or red witch or something to remove Jaime’s spirit from the castle.

“Perhaps we can help you move on. I’m awaiting a response from the king. I will try not to disturb your rest until then,” Brienne told him, making it a point to keep to her room as much as possible. He had enough honor to leave her to her privacy, but always followed her when she walked about. Jaime peppered her with bits of information that she did not want or need to know about Casterly Rock’s history.

“Are you trying to bore me into leaving?” She asked one day.

“Why, is it working?” His familiar smirk made Brienne’s stomach hurt, and she avoided him the rest of the day. Even though he wasn’t the exact Jaime she remembered, just hearing his voice and seeing his face every day was bringing up all the hurt and sadness she had long buried in her kingsguard duties.

Finally, she received a response from King’s Landing.

“The King has ordered that you are to stay in Casterly Rock. He says you are the only one that can help Jaime move on. Say hello to my brother for me,” Tyrion wrote.

Brienne crumpled up the message. How in seven hells was she supposed to help him move on? While she figured it out, she thought it would be best to just ignore the annoying ghost and pretend like he didn’t exist.

**

Jaime Lannister wouldn’t say that he liked being a ghost, but there was something nice to be said about having an entire keep all to himself. Which is why he took great pleasure in scaring the alive people who tried to enter.

He didn’t know why his family stayed away from the keep for five years, but had heard rumblings from people about a great war and figured that was why Lannisters were scarce. They didn’t run from a fight. His only regret was that he couldn’t join this battle.

So he bided his time by scaring the locals. He was quite good at it until that dour lady knight showed up. She wasn’t afraid of him in the slightest. It was vexing. And she wasn’t leaving!

The wench, for that’s what Jaime was calling her now, found out from her raven that no help was coming to remove his spirit so she had taken to ignoring him.

If there was anything worse than an alive person in his keep, it was an alive person who would not look at or talk to him. The nerve of her! She wouldn’t even tell him her name, let alone acknowledge his presence. She simply just walked around the castle as if she belonged there. He ignored the voice in the back of his non-corporeal head that whispered to him that somehow, she did belong there, with him. No. It would not do at all.

Jaime intensified his mocking efforts. He called her every name in the book. He mocked her looks, her figure, her gender, her clothes, her knighthood…anything he could think of. And she kept ignoring him. His frustration grew. He didn’t know if he was annoyed at her indifference to him or the fact that he cared so much.

Jaime starts following her around, mocking her at every turn. Except, he starts to notice things. Like how blue her eyes were. About how well she fought while sparring with the few remaining soldiers at Casterly Rock. And she had very long legs in those pants she wore instead of dresses.

At that point, his mocking turned to an attempt to start flirting banter. He started asking about her past love life, what she liked in a man. _But I still want her gone, right? Of course, I do._ Jaime wanted to haunt his family home in peace. He didn't need her dour head knocking about.

And people called her Ser! _What kind of fool would knight a woman?_   Still, he noticed she was kind to all she encounters and seemed nobler than many of the knights he’s met.

Then he saw she had scars, so many scars. Jaime wondered how she got them, but he won’t bring himself to ask. Something told him the stories would be hard to hear. And she had a beautiful sword, a Lannister sword.

 _It’s yours, it will always be yours_ , the thought echoed through his mind.

He also noticed how she has bad dreams, and for some reason calls out his name in her sleep. How does this woman know him? And why does she fascinate him so?

Finally, he cannot take her ignoring him anymore and popped in while she’s taking a bath. This all felt very familiar to him for some reason. And she doesn’t object to him seeing her naked. Curious, indeed.

“You know me, how do you know me?”

She scowled at him. “You want to finally talk to me now after all these weeks? Why do you care?”

He sighed and sat on the side of the tub…or floats in the sitting position, really.

“I remember things. But they are all jumbled.”

The lady knight narrowed her eyes at him. “What sort of things?”

Jaime raised his right hand. “Did I lose this?”

She nodded.

“Did I fight a bear?”

Again, she agreed, absentmindedly rubbing the scars below her shoulder. She must have been part of the bear fight too.

“I’m sorry, ser, but I don’t know your name. Were we…something?”

“Something?”

“Lovers? Friends?”

The woman wiped a tear from her eye. “Something.” It was all she said, but he knew there was a lot more behind it.

“What about my sister?”

She picked her head up. Ah, so she knew the truth about the Lannister twins. “What about her?”

“Is she alive? What did she think of you and I being…something?”

Again, a tear trickled down her face. Jaime had the surprising urge to wipe it, but he wasn’t corporeal so it was no use.

“Your sister died when the red keep fell. In your arms. You got your wish to die in the arms of the woman you love.”

Her words didn’t sound bitter, only sad. Jaime cocked his head at her, digesting this information.

“No, that doesn’t sound right.”

“What do you mean? You died! You are a ghost! They found your bodies like that.”

Jaime grimaced at the imagery, but still shook his head.

“No, I believe that Cersei and I died together, but her being the woman I wanted to be with at the time, it doesn’t feel right.”

Her face shut down then, clearly not wanting to continue this conversation. “And yet that’s what happened.”

Jaime studied her for a moment. “I’m sorry he hurt you.”

“He?”

“Me. The other me. The alive me that I don’t remember. I’m sorry for whatever he did that made you sad. Besides, well, dying.”

He could tell she was still fighting tears, so he opted to leave her to her bath and thoughts.

“Jaime?”

He turned.

“There were some good things he, you, did too,” she granted. Jaime gave her a sad smile and disappeared.

After that, their relationship changed. Though she still would not tell him her name (and he tried to overhear people, but they just called her “Ser” or “Lady Commander), they fell into a strange sort of friendship. He would beg her to fill in the gaps of some of his random memories.

“So really, I saved your life and you should be grateful eternally to me,” he said after hearing the entire bear pit story.

She just rolled her eyes, and that made him grin. He really liked annoying her.

The lady knight told him about how she came to get her sword, and he knew that he had been right about her importance when he learned that he had gifted her with such a valuable weapon.

But its name blew him away.

“Oathkeeper? Why would you name it that?”

She hesitated before telling him about their vow to protect the Stark girls. “But why that name?”

She didn’t say anything.

“Oh gods – I told you about Aerys, didn’t I? I’ve never told anyone that story! Not even Cersei! Why would I tell you?”

The lady knight didn’t say anything, avoiding his gaze.

“Are you going to ever forgive me?”

She lifted her eyes at that. “Why does it matter to you? You don’t remember.”

Jaime raised his hand, and then dropped it, frustrated that he couldn’t touch her. “It matters, I know it matters.”

“I did forgive you, I finished your page in the Book of Brothers. I only wrote good things.”

If Jaime had breath, it would stop at that moment. Who was this woman to him? What had he done to ever deserve her? And how on earth had he hurt her?

“But you haven’t forgiven me, here…” he pointed to his heart. “Whatever happened between you and me and between me and Cersei…I know that you were the one his…my heart belonged to.”

The knight was full on sobbing now. “Jaime, please, don’t…I can’t hear this…it makes it too hard…your DEAD.”

“Please tell me your name, milady,” he said in a whisper. “I have to know. I need to know.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know why, but I think I’m not supposed to tell you,” the lady knight said as she fled.

Jaime paced the halls outside her room for the next hour, waiting for her to emerge. He would not just pass through the door and invade her privacy, it would not be honorable. No, he would just wait. Jaime didn’t know why her name or forgiveness were so important to him, but they were.

Finally, the door creaked open and the very sad looking wench appeared. Her eyes were puffy from crying, a stark contrast to the strong and stoic woman he had come to know.

“Ser Jaime, I think I have figured it out. I know what I have to do to help you move on.”

“Move on? What are you talking about?”

“King Bran said that I had to figure out a way to help you move on and that it had to be me. I think I have to forgive you, Jaime, like you’ve been asking. It’s the only way you can finally be at rest. So Jaime Lannister…I for…”

“NOW HOLD ON A DAMN MINUTE!”

She blinked at his loud interruption. “Jaime, I’m trying to set you free.”  

“What if I don’t want to be set free?”

“You can’t haunt Casterly Rock forever!”

He frowned at this. “But if I move on, I won’t get to see you anymore.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You don’t even like me.”

He gazed at her with a longing expression that felt so familiar. “We both know that’s not true.”

The lady knight sighed. “Jaime, I can’t stay here forever. I have to get back to the kingsguard.”

“No.”

“Jaime, yes.”

“I won’t let you. I will just keep interrupting you.”

“You are impossible. Even when you’re dead.”

He grinned at her. “And you are stuck with me.”

Jaime did everything he could in the next few days to keep her from speaking her forgiveness of him. His favorite was to seen raunchy songs VERY loudly and make her blush.

“I can’t stay here forever.”

“I thought you loved me!”

The lady knight’s eyes teared at that. “I did. I do. It’s just…we both need to move on. I made a vow to protect my king. I can’t do that while staying here listening to you sing.”

Guilt seeped into Jaime’s spirit. He was holding her back.

“Could you maybe just not forgive me and then come back and visit me?”

She sat down, staring at her hands rather than meeting his eyes.

“That’s an option, but, I don’t think I could keep walking away from you forever. And to be able to see you and not touch you. And for you to not remember…I can’t bear it, Jaime. Please.”

Jaime was silent for a moment, his voice cracking when he finally spoke. “I think by helping me move on, you will be able to as well. Very well, my lady knight. Set me free.”

“I will miss you, Jaime. I love you, I always have and I always will.”

“I love you too, although I cannot remember how it came to be so. I think I would fall in love with you over and over again if I couldn’t remember each time.”

Brienne wiped the tears from her eyes and stood tall and proud.

“I, Ser Brienne of Tarth, forgive you, Jaime Lannister, for breaking my heart. The time we have had together has now mended it. You can go rest in peace now.”

_Brienne of Tarth_

_Brienne_

Her name washed over Jaime like he was being baptized. And he remembered.

_Oathkeeper_

_The Knighting_

_Their First Kiss_

_Waking up in her arms_

_Leaving her crying_

Jaime felt something warm happening in his chest. “Brienne…I remember.”

And Jaime Lannister didn’t move on. He _stayed_. The weight of all his memories poured into him. He sat down in the nearest chair.

“Jaime, are you all right?” Brienne asked, grabbing his hand.

“How can you forgive me after I LEFT YOU? I’M AN IDIOT!”

Brienne laughed. “Yes, well, you’re my idiot and I love you. Why are you still here? Why haven’t you moved on?”

Jaime shrugged, but threaded his fingers through hers to keep her close. _Wait, what?_

“Wench, we are holding hands.”

“Yes, we’ve done it before, what’s the matter?”

“I’M A GHOST, I HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO TOUCH ANYTHING FOR FIVE YEARS!”

 Brienne dropped his hand like it was hot and backed away. “How is that even possible? How long will it last?”

Jaime stared at her wide-eyed. “I don’t know, but I don’t want to waste it.” He pulled Brienne into his arms and hugged her tightly. “Gods, I’ve missed you, Brienne. I love you, so much.”

Brienne pulled away just far enough so that she could grab his face and kiss him, which he returned with fervor. They were so lost in each other, they barely heard the young servant clear his throat behind them.

“Excuse me, ser and uh…ser. I have an urgent raven for you. It came from King’s Landing, from the king himself, with a note that it was to be delivered at this exact hour.”

Jaime and Brienne exchanged nervous looks and unrolled the message. “Your returned love is a gift from the gods, Ser Brienne, do not waste it. You are released from your vow. I expect to see great things out of Casterly Rock and Tarth in the future. Tell Ser Jaime I forgive him as well. Be happy.”

Jaime stared down at the note in shock. “So just like that, I’m no longer dead? How can it be?”

“Jon Snow was dead and now he wanders the north with the wildlings.” Brienne would not release his hand, as if she was afraid he would disappear again.

“Well, I for one think we should try out this gift from the gods in the bedchamber,” he said, pulling her in that direction.

“Jaime! Shouldn’t we talk first?”

“We’ve been talking for weeks, with no touching. Touch now, talk later.”

His logic being as sound as his body, Brienne couldn’t argue.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! May ghost Jaime haunt you all!


End file.
